Happy Birthday (Louis Asahina x Reader)

READER

I folded the light blue cardigan carefully and set it on the wrapping paper laid out before me. I placed the clothing in the middle of it and folded the edges, wrapping it up and securing the gift with a light yellow bow. I straightened up and surveyed my gift. It looked great actually, despite my hurry to get it wrapped up. Yeah, this would be presentable enough.

            I took the gift and put it inside a brown paper bag, intending to give it to Louis Asahina, my co-worker, when the shop closes tonight. It was his birthday today, and I wanted to give him something as thanks.

            We had first met at the shop—I was just a newbie and he had been working there for about a month. He was the one who taught me the ropes and always ate with me at lunch. We even hung out sometimes when we had our day off. Sometimes it was to look for new stock for the shop or just plainly hang out. I had to admit, I’d developed a bit of a crush on him, but I just didn’t have the guts to tell him. And lately he had been talking about his cute little sister a lot, so I thought that he loved her too much to think about a relationship with another person. And by love, I wasn’t talking about familial love. It was Louis, after all, and something like that wasn’t too weird to him.

            I sighed and locked the door to my apartment. It was a nice day today—no reason to spoil it with negative thoughts.

LOUIS

I tied the apron with pockets filled with tools behind my back. It took me a while to get the knot right because I was very sleepy. I had stayed up late last night looking through hair arrangement magazines and hadn’t realized it was almost one in the morning. I had tried to sleep, but my alarm beeped before I could close my eyes. So in the end, I wasn’t able to sleep. Again.

            I heard the backdoor to the shop open behind me, then someone saying, “Good morning, Louis!” I would know that voice anywhere.

            Pulling a smile on my face, I turned around to face my co-worker ____ _____. She was wearing red today, a part of her weekly Rainbow Project where she would wear a different color in the rainbow everyday for a week. She started it a while after she started her job here, and I gradually learned to anticipate what color she would wear every single day. It was almost a year now, and she still continued her weekly tradition. I had to admit, she was very cute when she dressed up. It seemed that something of her was made even prettier with every color she wore. For example, her (e/c) eyes became vivid whenever she would wear blue. Green gave her (h/c) hair a very beautiful shine. And her (s/c) skin would look even more beautiful with yellow.

            As I watched ____ put her things away in her locker, I thought about asking her out again on Saturday, our next day off. Maybe we could look for more hair magazines or attend a seminar on make-up and hair. I’d do anything to spend the day with her.

            But thoughts of my sister Ema struck me out of my thoughts. I loved ____ as much as I loved Ema. But I couldn’t have both. That would be bad. And there was also the fact that one of them might not love me. They could treat me as a brother or a friend, but would I become something more than that in their eyes?

            Arms suddenly would around my waist, and it felt like I was being hugged from behind. I tried to turn around, and I immediately saw ____’s (h/c) hair.

            I barely heard her say, “Happy birthday, Louis,” before I felt a smile creep up my face. She remembered my birthday. My brothers didn’t seem to remember, and even Ema didn’t know about it. But I only told ____ once and she seemed to remember it, along with thousands and thousands of dates she had to remember. I was touched, to say the least. I was very happy to know that at least one person remembered the day I was born. Never mind that she wasn’t family. It was just nice to know that someone I loved greeted me on this special day.

            Turning around, I caught ____ in a loose hug. The smell of her shampoo invaded my senses and almost made me forget about everything. But I couldn’t forget what I wanted to say.

            “Thank you, ____-chan. Your greeting means a lot to me.” And before I could help it, I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

READER

I felt something soft land on my forehead and realized that Louis had kissed me. Kissed me! I felt my face go red—I didn’t expect him to do something like that… But as much as I would love to admit that I didn’t like it, it was just too sweet a gesture.

            Pulling away, I put a smile on my face—which wasn’t all that hard considering Louis’s previous actions.

            “Don’t go home yet tonight, okay?” I said. “I have something for you.”

            Louis was looking at me sleepily, like he hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, which wasn’t new to both of us. It was lucky after all that I bought some coffee on the way here. I took a can of it from my bag and offered it to Louis. He took it without a word and a smile on his face, a silent way of saying thanks.

***

We worked the day away, handling customers with ease and chatting them up while working on their hair or putting make-up on them. Despite wishing that just Louis and I were working in the shop, I was thankful that we had a lot more stylists today—it was super busy today, and even some of the patrons greeted Louis a happy birthday. I was happy that a lot of people remembered his birthday. It warmed my heart so much that I wanted nothing more than for work to end so I could give Louis my gift.

            And so, after working for eight hours in the shop, Louis and I were finally alone after the manager bade us goodbye and reminded us to lock up the shop when we were done.

            I held in my shaking hands the gift I had wrapped this morning. It didn’t get squished, thankfully, and I was glad for it. It would be bad to give it to Louis if it looked like a wreck.

            I held out the present to Louis, and he took it slowly, the caffeine apparently already out of his system. I just hoped he got some sleep tonight.

            Louis looked at the gift a moment, then at me, then back at the gift, then me again. “Can I open it?” he asked. I nodded my head, not nervous at all despite my shaking hands.

            He turned back to the gift and, since we were both sitting down, slowly undid the ribbon. He parted the wrapping paper away and let out a quiet gasp at the gift.

LOUIS

She gave me a cardigan. It was light blue in the shade of my favorite one, but had vertical and diagonal lines on it instead of polka dots. The size was just as big as the other one, and it looked just as cute. It had pockets, too, and it looked like I could put a lot of things in them.

            I currently wasn’t wearing my cardigan and decided to test it if it fit. I hurriedly put one arm through a sleeve, then the other. I fixed the way it hung on me, and ____ said, “It looks good on you, Louis.” I could feel myself turn pink a bit, and turned to ____.

            I took her hands in mine and said, “Thank you, ____. I love it. You picked the perfect present for me. And you were even the first one to greet me a happy birthday today. You really made me very happy, ____. Thank you.” And I leaned down and kissed her quickly on the lips. I smiled as I pulled back, and smiled even more when I saw that ____’s cute face had turned red.

            I didn’t tell her I loved her. I wasn’t ready yet, and now wasn’t the right time. I had to sort out my feelings first before I tell her those three precious words.

            Taking a deep breath, I said, “I can’t tell you that I love you just yet, ____. But that doesn’t mean that I’m turning you down. Besides, you didn’t even say anything, so turning you down would be a complete miscalculation on my part.

            “But I can tell you this: Someday, I will tell you, and that’s when I am ready. The only wish I have today is that I hope you can wait for me. Until I say it. Until I’m ready. So, please?”

            I thought ____ would cry over that, but I knew that she was a strong person, and that crying wasn’t something that she does so easily.

            And she proved my thoughts right by smiling softly, then saying, “Of course, Louis. Of course I’ll wait for you.” And then she hugged me, and I caught her in an embrace as well.

            Of all the birthdays that I’ve lived through, today was the best yet.

THE END